Cabilao or Alona Beach

[rcolman]

Hi, counting down ... 9 weeks to go !!!

We are going to spend a week in the Visayas before heading over to Leyte for the final week of our trip.

I am trying to decide in between:

a) Moalboal-Cabilao- ? - Leyte

or

b) Maolboal - Alona Beach - Leyte

or

c) Alona Beach - Leyte

Moalboal would be primarily to dive Pescador Island, while we would also like to do both Cabilao and Balacasag without spending all our time traveling back and forth.

Your suggestions and recommendations appreciated.


Rick Colman

 

[tazzmeyer]

Hi Rick,

Although I don't have an answer for you - I hope you have a great trip, it sounds awesome so far. Would love to see a trip report afterwards.
I'm headed to Alona Beach with my husband in 3 weeks -happy to pass along any hints I come upon while there.

Cheers!

 

[Bombarie]

Hi Ron -

That's a great itinary - have been to the places in July 2003 and returned to some in Sep 2005, you'll have some excellent dives. Am actually planning to go back once more in April or May. Anyway, assuming you arrive at Cebu City, its a 3 hour busride to Moalboal (you can also take a taxi, may be a bit faster. However, the recklessness of the bus drivers on the Cebu - Moalboal route is such that I'd recommend the biggest means of transport you can find...). The diving at Pescador Island is fantastic - the visibility was huge when I was there. Lots of small critters on the walls, frogfish etc and abundant fish, jacks in the blue and.....large whitetips reef sharks in the deep (we encountered them at 47.6m, to date still the record on my log and not proud of it, but never leave ur buddy alone etc. etc). The diving on the other sites around Moalboal was less interesting, I'd stay at Pescador as much as possible.

I travelled onward to Apo Island (2 hours south by bus, boat to Negros, bus to Dumaguette, other bus to Dauin - there are two dive resorts on Negros with d/ exists to Apo Island). Took the ferry from Dumaguette to Tagbiliran (from where its 30 minutes to Alona Beach on Panglao peninsula) or Siguijor, cannot remember. Anyway, if you do not go to Apo Island, you either have to go back to Cebu to take the ferry to Tagbiliran to get to Alona Beach (30 minutes by motorized bike or taxi) or Cabilao (think you need to take a bus north, then catch another small boat to get to Cabilao - havent been there yet (that's why i am going back...)).

Manhattandiver on this board got from Moalboal to Cabilao without trackingback to Cebu City, am pretty sure he posted a reported on that trip somewhere on the board. He's still active so may be send him a pm.

Haven't been to Cabilao but spent lots of time at Alona Beach - Balicasag Island is comparable to Pescador Island, fantastic diving, period. The reef immediately in front of the island is also nice, but a bit darkish somehow. That's where the pigmy seahorses are, though (Arco Point - spotted seven on a whip). I liked the Alona Tropical in Alona Beach, cheap, on the beach, friendly, nice restaurant on the beach, palm trees.

From Alona Beach there is at least two ways to get to Leyte - back to Cebu City with the ferry, and then another ferry to Maasin on Leyte. Or you can overland it - take a bus from Tagbiliran to a place on the eastcoast of Bohol called Ubay (remote, desolate, interesting experience). From there you take a ferry to Maasin and bus it to Padre Burgos in South Leyte (presume you stay at Gunther's or Pete's Whale of a Dive resort). I got an early bus from Tagbiliran to Ubay but did not make it in time to get a ferry and had to overnight, wasting a day. The overland trip is interesting though, kind of Mad Max scenery - every single tree has been chopped, weird green hills completely empty, only the Scottish sheeps are missing...

Diving Leyte is special, make sure to check the Naphantaw area.

Now you still now nothing about whether to stay at Cabilao of course....check for manhattandivers trip report, he stayed there a few days i think doing a lot of diving.

Happy bubbles!

Arie

 

[rcolman]

Great report. Thank you very much.

I am, however, still confused as to where/how to spend my week before going to Leyte ...

Rick.

 

[Bombarie]

Hi Rick -

Ah okay, had missed that part, you only have one week. Okay. Assuming you prefer bubbling over bumping around in local busses that's an easy one. Fly into Cebu, take a taxi to the port, get yourself on the first ferry to Tagbiliran and spend your week at Cabilao (haven't been there) or Alona Beach (been there). Alona Beach has enough different sites to keep you occupied for a week, Cabilao probably too but not sure. Moreover, the "scene" at Alona Beach is nicer than Moalboal, I think. At least they got a decent beach (Moalboal's was blown away in a typhoon long time ago). Diving Pescador Island for a week may be a bit too much anyway. And to do both spots in one week is, IMHO, too much hassle for a holiday, you loose a day travelling. Better to pick one and enjoy it all the way up. More relaxing that way, too.

Did you consider travelling to Leyte first and do Alona / Cabilao on the way back? There is some benefit there in that you can stay around Leyte as long as you want without risking missing your flight back. Its only a four hour trip from both Alona (multiple ferries a day from Tagbiliran) and Moalboal (bus every hour) back to the airport in Cebu. From Padre Burgos its basically a day of travelling and my guess is the number of ferries to Cebu per day is limited.

Well wherever you end up it will be grand. Have fun.

 

[pakman]

I'd say, just fly into Tagbilaran (Bohol) instead of Cebu (I'm presuming you're flying in from Manila). I think a week in Bohol would be nice, especially if you want to take a litle break from diving to check out the chocolate hills, the big eyed tarsiers, etc. Would be even better if you can find a shop that will do a day trip to Apo or some other nearby island. Also as an alternative to backtracking to Cebu to get to Leyte which will most likely involve you having to spend a nite in Cebu, there is a ferry between Leyte from Bohol, but you'll have to drive up to the northern part of Bohol for that. Then after your week of diving in Sogod Bay is over, fly out of Tacloban back to Manila.

 

[supergaijin]

Touchdown Mactan, Cebu. Depending on what time you arrive- stay the night here and do a few dives off Mactan the next day. Thresher sharks can be seen off Tingo Pt. Wall begins at 60ft and decends to 120ft and sharks cruise by fairly often. All is not lost if you don't see them as on the slope above you'll always get lion and scorpion fish under the small rocks, seahorses on slope, nudis, morays and other small stuff as well as occassionally you'll be accompanied by friendly remoras. My favourite dive off Mactan.

There's a cave off Mactan (beach divable- with a diveshop Aquasub run by Jens Hoffman- at Banyu Beach, Marigondon, Mactan- buy some fruit at the stand at Marigondon Crossing and say hi from Harvey! My good friends Vargas or Dina will get a kick out of it for sure!). Cave is deep at 90-100ft. There are some gravestones here as well- kinda cool thing to see underwater and make some interesting pictures other than just fish, fish, fish, diver, fish, fish, diver etc.

Some ghost pipe fish can be found (if you know where of course) at 30ft at Maribago- nice wall and good option for a night dive. AS well as ribbon eels in the sandy portions, I've seen Napolean Wrasse in the deep, lots of lionfish, scorpions, and great schooling fish above you. There's a bar at the top serving good food- say hi from me to grumpy Gordon at the Hole in the Wall. I'd do this as a third dive as there's no need to get deep. Wash your day down with a San Miguel at the bar above.

I'd seriously consider doing a day's diving here before heading to Alona/Cabilao because those islands are pretty small. I'll pass along some emails/ phone numbers if you like to contact Jens Hoffman for more details. He organises trips out to Cabilao as well so there's the option of simply not returning back to Mactan.

Cabilao is just around the corner really- couple of hours on the banca boat. It has a couple of nice dives by the lighthouse- one particular friendly Titan Triggerfish! I'd only do one day's diving here- maybe throw in a nightdive. There are a couple of shops/restaurants on the island so I'd stay here for a night rather than travel back to Alona or Mactan.

Balicasag is a small island but has some great dives as you'd probably know already. But yeah- easy to acess both Cabilao and Balicasag from Alona Beach.

Alona has a pretty nice atmosphere and you take a day off and go see the tarsiers and chocolate hills- (dawn is the best time to see them btw)

 

[clgsamson]

Take Southern Leyte first (5 days) and save the last part for Bohol (6-7 days including a country side tour which the local resort can arrange easily). Transfers may involve a day or day and half, a great time to enjoy the local culture and hospitality.

 

[rcolman]

Wow, you guys are great! Thank you for all the great info. My head is really spinning now with all the options.

I really hadn't thought about diving Mactan, but now it sounds interesting, TNX to Howard's description.

I arrive in Mactan around 2:40PM from Manila (after a week in Anilao/PG) and maybe it would make sense to stay in Mactan. Dive the next day, and then head south to Alona Beach. Dive for 5 or 6 days around Alona Beach, and then head to Leyte. [Does it make sense to try to fly from Tagbilaran to Tacloban, and then drive south to Sogod Bay.

This means passing on Moalboal for this trip, and also passing on staying on Cabilao Island. Stay in Alona Beach to dive Balacasag and Cabilao on a day boats?

Rick Colman

 

[rcolman]

Who are the good dive operators in Alona Beach and decent places to stay?

Rick.